#2 Poetry Of The Wilderness

The Powerful Poetry Of Nature

In the summer of 2014, Gabriëlla decided to dedicate a series of her work to the poetry of the forest/wilderness.

Gabriëlla: “Back in those days traveling abroad became impossible for me, so I decided to turn my attention to a nearby biotope: a lake surrounded by a forest, an area where i walk with my husband a lot.”

Your nearest paradise

Gabriëlla repeats it like a mantra: “You don’t have to go far to encounter the poetry of nature. It’s closer than you think. You just have to see it.”

Indeed, why travel thousands of miles to see nature’s wonders while your ecological footprint grows like a Bigfoot? Go outside, get lost on purpose, in your own neighborhood. After a while, maybe after only a few miles, it will hit you, it could be triggered by a detail, maybe because of the light or a shadow, a movement, a color, a sound, a smell and definitely a feeling.

Gabriëlla insists to join her for a walk in her favorite hidden Belgian paradise. And what’s in a name? A bit of irony it seems. This place is called Buitenland, that’s dutch for ‘abroad’.

Gabriëlla: “Look around, isn’t it beautiful here? Sometimes i can’t believe it. It’s poetry that you can discover in your immediate environment, in a small-scale. There’s inspiration everywhere you look. Just take your time to let it in.”

Gabriëlla sitting in her favorite workplace

Welcome to the jungle

Don’t dare to say to Gabriëlla that those are just a bunch of trees and a lake with some waterlilies.

Gabriëlla: “It isn’t banal. It’s a world of silence, beauty, light, contrast and tonality of green and blue with sculptural and meditative aspects, sometimes with hidden people and soundless animals. It’s mysterious.” She points at the vivid green that covers a part of the lake. It looks like real paint, a frog jumps in the water.

A bit later Gabriëlla is painting. Just sitting on her portable chair, right in the middle of a wood path. She focuses on little details, it’s like her mind becomes one with the forest. In times where nature is disappearing very fast, this little scene feels hopeful.

The poetry of the wilderness should be contagious, don’t you think?

Interested in a guided tour by Gabriëlla herself in the Sint-Niklaas showroom? ✍🏼 us an e-mail and it’s a date.

Next episode coming soon

In the next Denkaufgabe Gabriëlla will take us to a church to show us some similarities with her virtual worlds. If you don’t want to miss that, please leave your e-mail.